[Wikipedia-l] Re: Request for new Wikipedia: bokmål

[Ulf Lunde]

Andre wrote:

 > * Create nb: for Norsk Bokmål 
 > * Move the current contents of no: to nb:
 > * Create on the main page of no: as a sort of disambiguation page
 >   between nb: and nn:
 > * Let other pages on no: redirect to nb: so existing links keep working.

Mark wrote:

 > * Create nb: for Bokmål 
 > * Allow nb: users to copy-paste articles from no: that are in Bokmål,
 > since no: is a mixture and to just move everything would create a problem
 > * Place links to nn: and nb: prominently on the mainpage of no:
 > * Place interwiki links to nn: and nb: on all applicable pages on no:

Like both Andre and Mark, I too think that it is best to keep "no:" and create
"nb:" as a "parallel" to "nn:".

But is it necessary to disallow users from keeping on adding to the "no:"
Wikipedia if they want to?

I think that the future of Wikipedias is that there will be only one
(multi-lingual)
Wikipedia article database, and that users can simply select a set of prefered
languages for the user interface.  When that happens, discussions like this
will be meaningless.  But in the meantime we need a simpler solution for
Norwegian's two written forms.

Remember that all Norwegian speakers are able to read *both* written
forms of the language.  I think that most Norwegians, when clicking a
Wikipedia link inside a bokmål article, would prefer to be taken directly
to a nynorsk article about the word they clicked on, rather than being
shown an empty article (because there was no bokmål variant yet) with
the option of clicking an interwiki link to english, nynorsk, swahili, or
any number of other language variants.  And vice versa, of course
(redirect to bokmål if article is missing in nynorsk).

I, for one, would like to see a "nn:" Wikipedia where missing articles would
redirect me to the corresponding "nb:" article if it exists, and where any
article that does not have a counterpart in the "nb:" Wikipedia, is opened
(in "nn:") through a redirect-link if one tries to open the missing
"nb:" variant.

If I am looking for information, I usually don't care whether it is in nynorsk
or in bokmål.  So if I try to open an article in "no:", and only *one* of the
"no:", "nb:" and "nn:" Wikipedias actually has the article, I would like for
*that one* to open directly.

If there are more than one variant, and I look under "no:", the expected
effect would be to get the "no:" article if it exists (and ideally to be offered
a choice between the other two if they exist and there is no article
on "no:" itself).

So would it be best, perhaps, to first try Mark's solution?  Then, during a
"test period" of, say, a year, we could allow people to add articles to
(and freely move articles around between) any of the three Norwegian
Wikipedias, and just observe what happens.

If the "no:" grows fastest, it may inidcate that users prefer one common
Wikipedia.  In that case, we may want to move all articles from "nb:" and
"nn:" to "no:" and live with the mix (until user interface language selection
functions become so sophisticated that it doesn't feel mixed any more).

If "nb:" and "nn:" grow faster, at some point we can decide to switch to
Andre's solution, and move any articles that might be left in "no:" to their
respective Wikipedias.

Or is my proposal much too naïve?   :-/

Ulf Lunde